Oh the places you'll go!

"Where do you plan to go?"
"What do you plan to do in your future?" 

Those two questions I have gotten a lot lately.  Being a senior in high school it seems like you have to decide your future within this next few months.  This may be one of the most stressful times in our life.  Trying to earn money by working, filling out scholarships to get into the school you want, studying your hardest for that ACT, doing home working, supporting the Aurora teams, and many other activities we might have isn't exactly a walk in the park. 

I am one of those people who does not like thinking about the future. I worry non stop about it, what is going to happen, and how it's going to turn out, but there is really no need. "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6:34 I remember this verse when I am thinking about my future.  I just want to know if I'm going to get the job I interview for, or get accepted to the college I want.  Will I find my "dream guy?"  But if we think and stress about the futures what good is going to do us?  "Worry is like a rocking chair- it gives us something to do but it doesn't get us anywhere."-Unknown. This quote is VERY true.  We can worry for hours but it gets us absolutely no where!  I feel like seniors have a lot of pressure having to decide their future.  But think about it do we really need to plan out our future and what we want to do for the rest of our lives right this moment in time?  No.  Many people change their mind and that is perfectly fine!
I realize it is very important to get into a good college and get scholarships, but if you don't get into the college we want we still should follow our dream.  Not getting what you want isn't failure! I have been asked many times.. "What is your dream or passion?"  "What is something you could do everyday and never get bored?"  I honestly don't know how to answer that question.  The only dream I ever had was to become an Olympic Gymnast, or a barrel horse racer.  It's a little late for those dreams! 

I think this point in my life I need to realize what is really important.  Of course college is important but I think family definitely comes before that.  I would much rather stay at home and help my dad on the farm, or help my mother with chores around the house.  Most of all I want to watch my niece grow up and be there when my sisters win state volleyball! I think that being a better person and family member is going to get me farther than a college degree will ever get me.

I am not scared to go to college I am just unsure.  I wish I knew what career I wanted to go into but nothing has made me "excited."  I have thought about teaching, I love kids but I kinda lose patience.  I think patience is a key part to teaching.  I just assume kids know things when they don't.  I have also considered being a nurse but I faint when I see blood and I kinda figured that would be a problem with being a nurse. The most ideal job or plan for my future would be a stay at home mother.  Raise little cowboys and cowgirls and have my husband take over my fathers land.  But I of course can't go into my future thinking that I am going to find someone.  Sounds silly I know. But I absolutely loved having a stay at home mother.  I didn't even realize how lucky I was until I went to my friend’s house and they had to do their own laundry!

If I never decide what to do with my life or never find my "cowboy” I will come back and run the farm.  The "Oswald" farm has been in my family for three generations.  I would be the fourth.  Having no brothers, us girls aren't exactly excited to take over.  But how would you feel if your name was John the fourth and you had a son and didn't name him John?  That would be ruining the tradition!  My father isn't putting pressure on any of us girls to "take over" the farm but I know deep down inside when he retires he wants it to be in the hands of someone in the family or someone he truly trusts.  Farming is kind of known as a "manly" job but who says a women can't do it? Anything men can do women can do better! :)

I guess I want to live life and just accept every day as it comes.  It's hard for me to not worry but I try my best because if we think about it doesn't do any good!

photos of my future ;)

a mother and a wife :)

a sister, sister-in-law, and soon to be aunt! :)

farmer ;)

it may not sound like much.. but it's where i'm from..

I can see the bright, sparkly, open sky without walking more than a couple feet out the back door of my house.  I can see corn planted for miles and sometimes if the wind is just right I can hear the cars on the interstate or the cows mooing from the pasture down the road. There is no other place I would rather be than in Aurora, Nebraska where I have spent my last 18 years.  I cannot even imagine growing up any other place.  I love the rural community and how everyone knows everyone.  I really believe that our town goes over and beyond helping others and making everyone feel more at home.  We are a very welcoming and friendly community. 

I have lived in the same house my whole life. A big white house with a rap around porch and a two door garage is the only house I've every lived in.  We have a basketball hoop on our driveway where I play "horse" with my twin sisters and a grass volleyball court in my backyard where I watch the twins attempt to play "pepper."  We have a trampoline and swing set where I spent my younger years pretending I was an Olympic Gymnast. We have a big red barn where the raccoons and possums hang out.  Next to the barn we have many pins where I keep my cows, Priscilla and Petranella. Across the road we have a pasture where my dad keeps his cows and a pond where the snakes and turtles swim.  My house is seven miles southwest of Aurora, NE and seven miles northeast of Giltner, NE.  My house has all the field guys running to it when my mother makes her homemade cherry pies.  There is nothing better than fresh fruits and vegetables right from the garden.  I would much rather eat my mothers home cooked meals than go to any restaurant.
Growing up on the country has made me a little bit more unique than other girls. Some girls would rather work inside where they don't get dirty but not me.  I would much rather be outside breathing in the fresh air and soaking up the summer sun. Not every girl knows how to change a tire or how to castrate a calf but the farm is one of my favorite places to be. Surrounded by the smell of freshly cut grass and the flowers in my mother’s large garden make me feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. Of course there are smells that aren't so good. Like manure, or dead animals that my dog chews up, or even the turnips rotting in the field. But good smell or bad smell I wouldn't have it any other way.  In the summer I get up to work at seven in the morning and my father makes me do random jobs till around six at night. Most of my summer time is spent in the hot fields roughing or detasseling corn that is a foot taller than me.  If I am not trying to survive in the corn I am driving the tractor up and down the fields raking hay or trying not to take out the corn cultivating.

I am from a school that has friends I could almost consider family.  Growing up together, I feel like some of them know me more than I know myself.  Our school and student body is not like any other school.  Aurora has activities that suit everyone.  I believe our school tries to include everyone by the different programs they offer.  Our classmates and even teachers are very supportive not just in the classroom but with extra-curricular activities as well.  I think it is very neat to see half the community at football games cheering on the Aurora Huskies.  We have an amazing student section that never stops cheering and an awesome band that never quits playing. The band gets the game started and gets everyone in the audience excited, not just the kids. I honestly never knew how incredible our band was until I went to a different school and heard their band attempt to play the Star-Spangled Banner and it sounded extremely awful compared to ours. I love how our community will stick with the team even if we aren't doing as well as we would like.  We don't stop supporting them.  Our school works hard at everything we compete in, not to just win but to have fun and to know that we have tried our hardest.

I think it is the little things that mean the most to me.  I truly am grateful for everything I have and am so blessed to have grown up in such an amazing place I can call home.  I know that where I've grown up doesn't sound like much too some people, but country life it's all I’ve ever known and I would never want to change that. I am proud of that.  I believe that Jason Michael Carroll says it best.  "It may not sound like much, but it's where I'm from."

pictures that represent our state!

pictures that represent our school!

pictures that represent our community!

pictures that represent my home!